1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ultrasonic diagnosis device, such as a pulse wave detection device and an ultrasonic image diagnosis device, for obtaining an information of a diagnostic region on the basis of, by transmitting an ultrasonic wave to the diagnostic region, its reflected wave and, in detail, it is concerned in an ultrasonic diagnosis device which can be simply manufactured and can detect the ultrasonic wave with excellent sensitivity and accuracy.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Hitherto, there has been well known the ultrasonic diagnosis device, such as the pulse wave detection device and the ultrasonic image diagnosis device, for obtaining the information of the diagnostic region on the basis of, by transmitting the ultrasonic wave to the diagnostic region, its reflected wave.
FIG. 17 is a drawing showing one example of a sensor section of such an ultrasonic diagnosis device of the prior art. As shown in FIG. 17, this ultrasonic diagnosis device has, in its sensor section 100, a transmitting piezoelectric element 141 for transmitting the ultrasonic wave and a receiving piezoelectric element 142 for receiving the ultrasonic wave. And, these piezoelectric elements 141, 142 are fixed to a support body 146 so as to be disposed obliquely to a measuring region. These piezoelectric elements 141, 142 are fixed to the support body 146 by disposing them in predetermined positions of the support body 146 and thereafter pouring and curing a resin.
In the ultrasonic diagnosis device of the prior art mentioned above, by the fact that the two piezoelectric elements 141, 142 are disposed obliquely to the support body 146, the reflected wave is received in its wide range by the receiving piezoelectric element 142 to thereby improve a measuring sensitivity.
However, such an ultrasonic diagnosis device of the prior art requires to fix the piezoelectric elements by the resin and work the support body obliquely, and thus takes much time in its manufacture. Besides, in case of fixing by the resin, there is a possibility that disposing positions and disposing angles of the piezoelectric elements are deviated when pouring the resin, so that there is a possibility that the piezoelectric elements cannot be disposed with a high positional accuracy and thus it is difficult to obtain improvements in the measuring sensitivity and accuracy.
The present invention has been made in order to solve such a problem as mentioned above, and its object is to provide an ultrasonic diagnosis device which can be simply manufactured and can obtain high sensitivity and measuring accuracy.
The present invention achieves the object mentioned above by providing an ultrasonic diagnosis device (1st constitution) comprising a transmitting piezoelectric element for transmitting an ultrasonic wave to a diagnosis region, a receiving piezoelectric element for receiving a reflected wave of the ultrasonic wave from the diagnosis region, support means for supporting the transmitting piezoelectric element and the receiving piezoelectric element, and information obtainment means for obtaining an information of the diagnosis region on the basis of the reflected wave received by the receiving piezoelectric element, in which the support means has a planar face disposed approximately parallel to the diagnosis region, and the transmitting piezoelectric element and the receiving piezoelectric element are disposed on the planar face of the support means by a relation satisfying the following conditions 1 or conditions 2 in case where it is supposed that a width of the transmitting piezoelectric element is a, a distance between the transmitting piezoelectric element and the receiving piezoelectric element b, a width of the receiving piezoelectric element c, a distance up to a measuring region d and a directivity angle xcex8:
c/(2d tan xcex8)xe2x89xa70.1 and 0 less than b 23 2d tan xcex8xe2x88x92cxe2x80x83xe2x80x83conditions 1
xe2x80x83(2d tan xcex8xe2x88x92b)/(2d tan xcex8)24 0.1 and 2d tan xcex8xe2x88x92c less than b  less than 2d tan xcex8.xe2x80x83xe2x80x83conditions 2
The present invention achieves the object mentioned above by providing an ultrasonic diagnosis device comprising a transmitting piezoelectric element for transmitting an ultrasonic wave to adiagnosis region, a receiving piezoelectric element for receiving a reflected wave of the ultrasonic wave from the diagnosis region, support means for supporting the transmitting piezoelectric element and the receiving piezoelectric element, and information obtainment means for obtaining an information of the diagnosis region on the basis of the reflected wave received by the receiving piezoelectric element, which in that the support means has aplanar face disposed parallel to the diagnosis region, and the transmitting piezoelectric element and the receiving piezoelectric element are disposed on the planar face of the support means such that their widths are respectively 0.38 to 1.1 mm, and a gap between them is 0.05 to 4.0 mm.